Review of Stitch Experiment 626

The game starts off with plenty of background story videos to set the stage for our mutant Stitch’s adventures. Of course, you can quickly bypass them to start the game. Graphically, this game is gorgeous. There are little or no noticeable polygon glitches for the moving characters. Everything is rendered very nicely with the only drawback being the lack of heavy texturing…but we are getting there. The background scenery is also crisp, detailed and fully interactive with Stitch. And unlike other games, the camera follows Stitch wherever he goes. Turn around and the camera follows. In addition, you can move the camera around in any direction and see details even up to the sky. Sometimes the camera lags behind the movement, but a quick press of L2 pops it into place. Since Stitch is so versatile, he can climb, jump and run, there are few limits to where he can go. There are only certain textured areas that he can climb up, so it’s not totally unlimited, but there are so many ways to move around, you don’t feel as if you are limited to a certain path, etc.

This leads right into the playability. With the high-quality graphics and very mobile camera, we have a character that is very easy to move around and it is very easy to learn what he can and can’t do. In addition, there are little icons you can touch that give additional hints on movement, rewards, etc. You also see a ‘bouncing mushroom’ that little characters are bouncing on to give you the idea on how to use it. There are checkpoints throughout that when you get to it, then the next time your health goes to zero, you start there. In each location, you have to collect DNA. Enough DNA will get you eligible for the next world. In addition there are crystals, idols and boxes that Stitch can blast with his guns to unlock health, more DNA and other prizes. Watch it, he can blast good things away, too. Stitch has to jump, climb, or run in certain areas. Also, you have to deal with enemies such as big stinger wasps. They are brought down with a gunshot. Other enemies require more shots or some other creative ways to take them out of the picture. For example, you can pick up your enemy and throw him at another enemy, then voila! they are both destroyed. Or, just throw him into a pit, a crystal, or a pool of acid to get rid of him.

The controller functions easily enough. Movement is either by thumbstick or d-pad, and you have the buttons that do things like jump, shoot, etc. You will quickly learn the controls and master them. As you learn the movement tricks, you will increase the speed Stitch moves through levels.

Another feature are large squid-like creatures you will encounter throughout the game. As you approach it and make contact, he flies away. You then have to follow him quickly (multiple times, tagging and following) to his final destination. The reward for all this hard work (and it IS hard) is film reels. These are used to unlock secrets, which are clips from the actual Lilo and Stitch movie. Rumor has it that if you collect all 90 plus reels you can virtually unlock the entire movie. Some of these guys are nearly impossible to catch, or even see, let alone follow, so you’ll have trouble collecting all of the reels to be sure. I did find if you go back and play a previous level, you can go after the squids again to unlock another reel that may have been missed. Also, even though each squid has their own unique route that you must follow them in, they never change their movement patterns, so you can get a reel quickly on some easy levels. If you don’t follow the squid fast enough though, he teleports back to where you originally found him in the first place, then you need to start again. Just doing those pieces is an adventure onto itself.

The audio on this is also superb. The sound effects are realistic and excellent. Also, you hear the laugh of joy from Stitch as he blows things up. You also hear the professor’s voice following Stitch as he moves along. The canned expressions do repeat, but not to a point that they are annoying.

OUR PLEDGE: We promise that we have fully played 'Stitch Experiment 626' before writing this review. The scores given above are our honest opinion and were not influenced in any way by the manufacturer or distributor of the game.

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"This is one of those games that really is starting to show the power of the PS2. I didn’t feel confined to a ‘path’ that I’ve experienced in other games like this. There is much more flexibility. You can even go back to other areas without any problem (except when transported to a new level). The graphics, playability ease and sound effects make this a fun and addicting game. The added feature of trying to get many film reels to unlock the movie only adds to the fun."

Score Breakdown:

Graphics 17/20Playability 47/50Sound 9/10Lastability 17/20

Our Recommendation:

This game either pushes the boundaries of it's genre further than ever before on this system, or creates a completely new gaming experience. Either way, it should not be missed and is an essential purchase in our opinion.